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Going the distance
Olazabal's improved swing a match for new Augusta
Posted: Friday April 12, 2002 7:52 PM
By DAVID BARRETT
Senior Editor, GOLF MAGAZINE
The new Augusta National demands that players hit longer and straighter drives if they want to contend for the green jacket in 2002. It just so happens that this year the new Jose Maria Olazabal is hitting longer and straighter drives, so it works out fine.
The Masters has always been Olazabal's best major, accounting for both of his victories and half of his 10 top-eight finishes. Driving -- especially accuracy -- has been his weakness, but straight hitting was not a requirement at Augusta in the past. Olazabal was able to use his sharp iron game and his even better short game to great effect at Augusta, where imagination and a silky touch around and on the greens is a vital asset.
Olazabal has retained his spot on the leaderboard on the lengthened and strengthened Augusta this week (tied for sixth when play was suspended Friday afternoon) thanks to a vastly improved driving game. After years and years of struggling to hit fairways, Olazabal knew he needed to do something if he wanted to truly become one of the world's top players instead of a guy who was a factor in The Masters but disappeared in the other majors. So, he started working on his swing with Butch Harmon last year, and it's paying big dividends.
After ranking 188th -- close to last -- in driving distance on Tour last year at 266.8 yards, he's stepped it up to 77th in 2002 at 278.8. The stats don't show any improvement in accuracy (125th last year and 127th this year), but his misses don't seem to be hurting him as much. As a result, he's posted six top-10 finishes in eight PGA Tour starts this year, including a victory in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines (another course that just got much longer thanks to a redesign), and ranks second on the money list. Last year, his first as a regular member of the PGA Tour, he didn't have a single top-10 in 15 starts.
At the age of 36, it's difficult to assess just what kind of career Olazabal has had so far. He's been a significant player on the world scene, but considering the way he burst onto the stage as a 20-year-old in 1986, when he was hailed as the next Seve Ballesteros, you could say it's been disappointing.
On the plus side of the ledger, he's demonstrated an ability to win in the United States. His six PGA Tour wins match Ballesteros and Nick Faldo for the most by any European -- and Olazabal has done it while playing fewer events in America than the other two. He also teamed with Ballesteros in the most effective Ryder Cup partnership ever and has posted 22 European Tour victories.
But he's never really been a dominant player on the European Tour and too often has made the Ryder Cup team only as a captain's selection. (He wasn't picked for the team for the 2001 scheduled Ryder Cup that will be held in 2002, with Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik getting the nod over him). Things began to go awry in 1991 when his problems finding the fairway began in earnest. Before then, he'd finished second or third on the European Tour Order of Merit four times; he hasn't been that high since.
Of course, the mysterious foot pain that made it hard to walk and knocked him off the Tour for the entire year of 1996 was a big setback.
Since his return, he's won the 1999 Masters, to go along with his 1994 title, but has only one other major finish better than 12th (fourth in the 2000 PGA Championship). He just found it too hard to play from the rough so often in the U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship.
But with his new-and-improved swing, don't be surprised to find Olazabal in contention down the stretch this weekend. The difference is that this year he's a player to watch in the other majors, too.
You can email your comments to David Barrett at: david.barrett@time4.com.
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